BEIJING: Former NBA star Yao Ming, also a political adviser in China, wants his country to do more to stop the trade in illegal ivory.

"Buying ivory is buying bullets," Yao, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), told reporters attending the CPPCC annual session in Beijing, heaping pressure on the world's leading tusk consumer.

Yao is well known for his stance against poaching and his high-profile campaigns against the trade. He wants legislation to prevent the sale of any illegal animal products and wider publicity for the cause.

Ivory remains legal in China if it comes from a registered dealer.

Yao's proposal to the CPPCC asks for a total ban on all domestic trade in ivory and ivory products and an end to imports.

"The ban will protect elephants," he said.

Ivory products are always used as bribes, and are an important feature of the extravagance and corruption in China, Yao added.

China banned trading in endangered species such as the giant panda, the golden monkey and the white-flag dolphin in the late 1980s.

Between December 2013 and January 2014, China led operation Cobra II, a strike against international wildlife crime organised by China, the United States, South Africa, the Lusaka Agreement Task Force, the Asean Wildlife Enforcement Network and the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network.

Over 350 cases were dealt with and in excess of three tonnes of ivory and ivory products seized, along with more than 1,000 hides and numerous other wildlife products.

In January, 6.1 tonnes of confiscated ivory, seized over a number of years, were destroyed in south China's Guangdong province.

"This shows China's determination to stop poaching and the illegal trade in animal products," Yao said in his proposal.

NEW DELHI, March 07, 2014 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has become a father again at the age of 56 after his wife gave birth to their third child in India, according to an embassy statement sent to AFP Friday.

A baby girl was delivered at a private hospital in the New Delhi satellite town of Gurgaon earlier this week, the statement said.

Karzai paid a brief visit to the Fortis Hospital on Wednesday to see his wife, 44, and new child as he flew on to Sri Lanka where he is on a two-day trip.

The leader, who has close ties with New Delhi, is set to retire from office after elections set for April 5 having led his war-wracked country since 2001.

Both of his other children - a son and a daughter - were born in Afghanistan, but due to an unspecified "medical complication" Karzai's wife Zinat was advised to travel to seek specialised care in India.

The child was born on Tuesday at around 9:30 am (0400 GMT), the Afghan embassy in New Delhi said in the statement.

In an interview last year to the BBC, Zinat explained that her husband of 15 years doted on his young family but often found it difficult to find time for them due to demands on his time.

"Sometimes, perhaps on Fridays, he might be free for an hour or so, so he will go for a walk with me and the children. We all go out together - once in a while," she said.

She also stressed that for them, despite deep-rooted cultural preferences for boys in Afghanistan, they were equally happy to have a daughter.

"For us... there is no difference between a boy and a girl," she said. "A daughter is the best gift from God."

The popular TV series is getting a music makeover from hip-hop artistes.

Watch The Throne, meet Game Of Thrones. HBO has commissioned rappers including Wale, Common and Outkast's Big Boi for a mixtape devoted to its hit fantasy series.

On one Catch The Throne track, Wale raps about bringing "that Khaleesi heat" and decapitating other MCs.

The unlikely seeming enterprise is all part of an effort to reach the "muticultural" audience of Game Of Thrones, HBO told The Wall Street Journal.

"Our multicultural audiences are a very important part of our subscribers, and we don't want to take them for granted," Lucinda Martinez, HBO's senior vice president for multicultural marketing, told the paper.

Actually, the Journal found, the audience for Game Of Thrones is a little less multicultural than that of HBO overall. Last year, the audience for its third season was 13.2% African-American, 9.2% Hispanic and 76.6%, according to Nielsen figures. Overall, HBO's audience last year was 16.8% black, 12.3% Hispanic and 72.9% white.

Maybe it's because the cast is so overwhelmingly white? HBO notes that African-Americans and Latinos are over-represented in its subscriber count relative to their numbers in the population at large, and says Nielsen's numbers don't account for platforms like HBO Go.

HBO declined to say how much the campaign cost or how much it paid the artistes who took part in the 10-song mix tape, which will be released Friday.

It was created by a team of producers at New York's Launch Point Records, who sampled music from the show's score and snippets of dialogue. Other rappers involved include reggaeton star Daddy Yankee and rapper Bodega Bamz. Unfortunately absent are Kanye West and Jay-Z, the pair behind Watch The Throne.

The Game Of Thrones foray into hip-hop isn't the show's first collaboration with popular musicians: Both The Hold Steady and Gary Lightbody, lead singer of Snow Patrol, have sung the song The Bear And The Maiden Fair for the show. The song is said to be one of the most popular in Westeros. — Reuters

The actress is set to make an appearance on Ashton Kutcher's Two And A Half Men.

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher are hooking up on the small screen again.

Kunis, Kutcher's former That '70s Show co-star – and, according to reports, current fiancee – has been booked to guest star on an episode of Kutcher's CBS sitcom Two And A Half Men. Kunis will play Vivian, a young, beautiful, free-spirited world traveller who shows up on Walden's doorstep. Walden feels an instant connection with her, convinced she's "the one". The problem is, Walden (played by Kutcher) was about to propose to someone else.

Kunis, who played Jackie Burkhart, the girlfriend of Kutcher's pretty-but-slow-witted Michael Kelso on That '70s Show, will appear on the big screen opposite Channing Tatum in Jupiter Ascending, as well as in Third Person, which is slated for June release.

Kunis' other TV work includes voice work as Meg Griffin for the Fox animated series Family Guy. — Reuters

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The actor and radio personality on his role in the new movie Take Me To Dinner.

ACTOR and prominent radio personality Patrick Teoh revealed that he had been ragging long-time friend Gavin Yap for ... well, a long time to bring his film ideas to life. When asked what took Yap so long to come up with a feature film, he gave one simple reason with his trademark deadpan delivery: "Because he's a lazy b*stard."

"Both of us have been talking about making this movie for about five, six years now," Teoh said in an interview in Petaling Jaya recently. "It's a matter of timing. He finally had the time do sit down and do it last year. He said if he didn't do it then, then it will probably never happen. He called me up and asked if I wanted to do it and I said 'let's go'."
Actor and theatre director Yap will make his feature film debut with Take Me To Dinner, a drama starring Teoh and Susan Lankester. The film tells the story of Edward, an ageing contract killer contemplating retirement.

"My character Edward starts to think about his life. He is estranged from his child because of his work and he lost his marriage. Then he realises that he doesn't want to do the work anymore. So he accepts one more contract and thinks that would be it," said Teoh.

Problems arise when Edward unexpectedly falls in love with his last contract.

"He falls in love with his contract, a woman (played by Lankester). Because of that, he decides to pull out from the deal that he initially agreed to, which is to kill the woman."

But it's not easy for Edward to get out of the contract.

"Among the 'contractors', it's a terrible thing to do when you pull out from a contract. When that happens, to protect the interest of others in the profession, the contractors have to kill Edward," he explained.

Another problem for Edward is that he can't get out of his job alive.

"It's also in the contractors' code that nobody can quit, and if anyone decides to do so, the others have to kill that person in order to protect their secrets."

He added: "So Edward calls his friends – a group of contractors – and says, 'I'm going to have my dinner now.' It's a code for his friends to take him to his last supper."

Edward's group of contractor friends are played by theatre regulars Thor Kah Hoong, U-En Ng, Ben Tan and Michael Chen. Teoh stressed that his character is not the typical Hollywood depiction of an assassin.

'As a writer and director, Gavin (Yap) is very weird. Which is one of the reasons I like to work with him,' says Teoh.

"To say that I play an assassin might give the audience the impression that Take Me To Dinner is an action-packed film with Chow Yun-Fat rolling around going bang bang bang. If you pay my character enough, he will either kill somebody for you or break his arms. He is actually a gangster."

Take Me To Dinner was shot in a period of 12 days at various locations in Kuala Lumpur.

"To say it was shot on a low budget is an overstatement. It was actually shot with no budget at all. Everybody worked on the film as a project of passion. Nobody was getting paid."

Whether or not he eventually gets paid, Teoh said it doesn't matter. He simply relished the opportunity to work with Yap again.

"As a writer and director, Gavin is very weird. Which is one of the reasons I like to work with him. Take Me To Dinner could have easily become a very commercial blood and gore kind of film. But Gavin's ideas are sometimes quite dark and different. I like it."

It also helps that Teoh has a passion for acting.

"You do it for the love of the craft. If the script is very appealing, then you would do it without considering how much you're getting paid for it. Still, you do hope that the story you tell will be able to touch the audiences' hearts and put bums on seats in cinemas."

The radio deejay also shared what song he thinks best describes Take Me To Dinner: "The Sound Of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel."

Rodrigo Santoro on playing the Persian God-King in '300: Rise Of An Empire'.

IN 300: Rise Of An Empire, Rodrigo Santoro plays the role of Persian God-King Xerxes. While in reality, eight years have passed since 300 was released, in the film the audience finds out exactly what happens to Xerxes after 300 ends.

In an interview with SFX magazine, the 38-year-old Brazilian says: "I'm not 20 any more, so it's a little different. I remember having to watch the scene in the first one – right after the 300 are dead and Xerxes has just had a spear cut his face – and thinking, 'Oh my god ... I have to connect right after that battle. How do I do it?' It's the same character, but what can I do to make it fresh for myself?"

It helped that the film delves into his character's past, revealing how the mortal Persian turns into a gigantic tyrant. "We get to know a little about how and why Xerxes becomes the God King."

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gives his support to U.S. President Barack Obama's efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis in their 40-minute phone conversation, a Japanese government statement said on Friday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said there were still differences with the United States in their approaches and assessments of the Ukraine crisis after speaking to U.S. President Barack Obama on the phone, the Kremlin reported.

In a statement on Friday, Putin said Kiev's new authorities, which came to power in an anti-constitutional coup, had imposed "absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern, southeastern and Crimea regions".

"Russia cannot ignore calls for help in this matter and it acts accordingly, in full compliance with the international law," Putin said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the situation in Ukraine and agreed that Russia's intervention there threatened world peace, the White House said on Thursday.

"The two leaders agreed that Russia's actions are a threat to international peace and security and emphasized the importance of preserving Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," the White House said in a statement about the call.

"They committed to work with other G-7 partners to insist that Russia abide by its obligations and commitments to Ukraine's sovereignty," it said.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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The actor and radio personality on his role in the new movie Take Me To Dinner.

ACTOR and prominent radio personality Patrick Teoh revealed that he had been ragging long-time friend Gavin Yap for ... well, a long time to bring his film ideas to life. When asked what took Yap so long to come up with a feature film, he gave one simple reason with his trademark deadpan delivery: "Because he's a lazy b*stard."

"Both of us have been talking about making this movie for about five, six years now," Teoh said in an interview in Petaling Jaya recently. "It's a matter of timing. He finally had the time do sit down and do it last year. He said if he didn't do it then, then it will probably never happen. He called me up and asked if I wanted to do it and I said 'let's go'."
Actor and theatre director Yap will make his feature film debut with Take Me To Dinner, a drama starring Teoh and Susan Lankester. The film tells the story of Edward, an ageing contract killer contemplating retirement.

"My character Edward starts to think about his life. He is estranged from his child because of his work and he lost his marriage. Then he realises that he doesn't want to do the work anymore. So he accepts one more contract and thinks that would be it," said Teoh.

Problems arise when Edward unexpectedly falls in love with his last contract.

"He falls in love with his contract, a woman (played by Lankester). Because of that, he decides to pull out from the deal that he initially agreed to, which is to kill the woman."

But it's not easy for Edward to get out of the contract.

"Among the 'contractors', it's a terrible thing to do when you pull out from a contract. When that happens, to protect the interest of others in the profession, the contractors have to kill Edward," he explained.

Another problem for Edward is that he can't get out of his job alive.

"It's also in the contractors' code that nobody can quit, and if anyone decides to do so, the others have to kill that person in order to protect their secrets."

He added: "So Edward calls his friends – a group of contractors – and says, 'I'm going to have my dinner now.' It's a code for his friends to take him to his last supper."

Edward's group of contractor friends are played by theatre regulars Thor Kah Hoong, U-En Ng, Ben Tan and Michael Chen. Teoh stressed that his character is not the typical Hollywood depiction of an assassin.

'As a writer and director, Gavin (Yap) is very weird. Which is one of the reasons I like to work with him,' says Teoh.

"To say that I play an assassin might give the audience the impression that Take Me To Dinner is an action-packed film with Chow Yun-Fat rolling around going bang bang bang. If you pay my character enough, he will either kill somebody for you or break his arms. He is actually a gangster."

Take Me To Dinner was shot in a period of 12 days at various locations in Kuala Lumpur.

"To say it was shot on a low budget is an overstatement. It was actually shot with no budget at all. Everybody worked on the film as a project of passion. Nobody was getting paid."

Whether or not he eventually gets paid, Teoh said it doesn't matter. He simply relished the opportunity to work with Yap again.

"As a writer and director, Gavin is very weird. Which is one of the reasons I like to work with him. Take Me To Dinner could have easily become a very commercial blood and gore kind of film. But Gavin's ideas are sometimes quite dark and different. I like it."

It also helps that Teoh has a passion for acting.

"You do it for the love of the craft. If the script is very appealing, then you would do it without considering how much you're getting paid for it. Still, you do hope that the story you tell will be able to touch the audiences' hearts and put bums on seats in cinemas."

The radio deejay also shared what song he thinks best describes Take Me To Dinner: "The Sound Of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel."

George Lazenby lacks the swagger of Sean Connery, but this 1969 black sheep is possibly the best 007 film ever.

ON Her Majesty's Secret Service (OHMSS) had a lot to live up to. As far as the entire world was concerned, Sean Connery was James Bond. And here was some impostor – worse, an impostor from the colonies, George Lazenby, whom nobody had heard of – waltzing in to take his place. It wasn't right. It wouldn't do. To rub everyone's noses in it even further, OHMSS deliberately stuck closely to the book, which meant no audience-pleasing whizz-bang gadgets. And what's with the bummer of an ending? No wonder the film only took half the amount of You Only Live Twice at the box office.

And yet, I will fight anyone who dares to tell me that they don't like OHMSS. Because they are flat out wrong. In the 45 years since it was released, it stands out as one of the best 007 films ever. Possibly even the best. It has the best soundtrack. It pushes the character into difficult new places. And that ending: that's not just a great James Bond ending, it's probably in the top 10 film endings of all time.

If you've never seen OHMSS, you should watch it. If you've seen it before, you should watch it again. And if you don't like it, I'm serious about fighting you.

Bond (George Lazenby) allowed himself one moment to be human when he married Tracey Draco (Diana Rigg), and paid the price for it – a price hardly acknowledged later in the series.

By George!

First things first: We need to talk about George. Lazenby isn't Connery. He lacks the swagger, the element of constant danger that his predecessor (and successor, since he returned to the role for Diamonds Are Forever) made his own. His voice is a bit all over the place. It doesn't help that he spends a huge portion of the film pretending to be a bespectacled, milquetoast man called Hilary Bray, nor that he was partially dubbed by English actor and writer, George Baker.

But what Lazenby does have, when he's allowed, is brute strength. Less slender than Connery, he is better equipped for stunt work, like in the pre-title sequence where he basically bodyslams a baddie into a tent. His awkwardness, too, ends up being his major strength. None of the other Bond actors could do vulnerability very well but, whether intentionally or not, Lazenby is an open sore. He's ruffled more easily, caught out more. He even displays palpable fear at one point.

And, of course, it helps that his Bond girl is Diana Rigg. Although she didn't have an awful lot to live up to – all previous Bond girls were more or less content to stand there and blink in bikinis – she's almost 007's equal here. She's spiky and uninterested, and initially uses him more than he does her. So, when tenderness between them grows, it's tangible. Not permanent – an hour into the film, he's in bed with someone else – but it's easily the most committed relationship we've seen him in.

All the time in the world

Not to bang on about it too much, but the final few moments of OHMSS are what sent the whole thing into the stratosphere. After defeating Blofeld, Bond rolls around in the snow with a St Bernard for a moment or two. Then, almost immediately afterwards, he's married. Diana Rigg cries with happiness. They cut the cake. Moneypenny's heartbroken, but puts on a brave face. They drive away to embark on their honeymoon. They discuss the family they're going to have. It's the first ending to a James Bond film that isn't just sex as a cathartic reaction to death. For once, maybe for the first time ever, he's actually content.

And then she dies.

That's how the film ends: with James Bond sobbing and cradling his murdered wife, refusing to believe that she's really gone.

It's a sucker punch, and there isn't a single trace of redemption, no matter how hard you look. There are no quips, no raised eyebrows; just the stark image of a bullet hole in a windscreen. Bond had allowed himself to be human, and he paid the price.

Observations

1. Then, of course, the whole thing was forgotten. As soon as OHMSS ended, Bond would only get increasingly campy. The loss Bond felt at the end of this film wouldn't be referenced in any meaningful way until Licence To Kill, and then only as particularly oblique subtext. What a wasted opportunity.

2. That's unless you count For Your Eyes Only, in which Bond lays flowers at Tracy's grave before dropping Blofeld down a chimney in what's quite clearly the most abysmal five minutes of the entire Bond franchise.

3. And don't forget that this is the film with the Gumbold office safecracking scene, possibly the most suspenseful in the series, even if it does come to nothing and 007 spends much of it gurning at boobs.

4. Also: Louis Armstrong's musical contribution of We Have All The Time In The World. That really can't be overstated enough, can it?

5. One aspect where I will agree with the OHMSS haters – the opening James Bond theme. It's rejigged here, and it sounds like a kitten trying to eat a stylophone. Horrible.

6. And fine, you might have a point about all the callbacks. The address to camera at the start. The whistled Goldfinger theme. This wasn't just a horrible portent of things to come, it actively ground away at the film's morose heart. – Guardian News & Media

Rodrigo Santoro on playing the Persian God-King in '300: Rise Of An Empire'.

IN 300: Rise Of An Empire, Rodrigo Santoro plays the role of Persian God-King Xerxes. While in reality, eight years have passed since 300 was released, in the film the audience finds out exactly what happens to Xerxes after 300 ends.

In an interview with SFX magazine, the 38-year-old Brazilian says: "I'm not 20 any more, so it's a little different. I remember having to watch the scene in the first one – right after the 300 are dead and Xerxes has just had a spear cut his face – and thinking, 'Oh my god ... I have to connect right after that battle. How do I do it?' It's the same character, but what can I do to make it fresh for myself?"

It helped that the film delves into his character's past, revealing how the mortal Persian turns into a gigantic tyrant. "We get to know a little about how and why Xerxes becomes the God King."

SHAH ALAM: A DiGi.Com Bhd top executive said the telco will spend RM900mil this year to boost coverage, declining, however, to comment on speculation linking it to the possible acquisition of Green Packet Bhd unit Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd (P1).

Market talk is that DiGi and Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) are among the parties said to be close to sealing a strategic merger and acquisition (M&A) deal with P1.

South Korea's SK Telecom is the second largest shareholder in P1 with a 26% stake.

"We are interested in looking at different options and opportunities, but we won't be able to comment specifically on (our interest in) P1," DiGi's chief operating officer Albern Murthy said when queried by reporters at an event yesterday.

TM was recently reported as saying that it was "open to talking to anyone" with regards to possible M&As.

Green Packet is said to be interested in getting a strong local partner to boost its P1 services.

"In the short term, the corporate exercise may be in the form of a cash or share-swap option that must be studied in detail, but in the long term, it would be very advantageous for either company to own P1," a telco analyst who declined to be named said.

"For DiGi, because it has the least amount of spectrum space, it will be a boost, technically speaking," he added.

Meanwhile, at the press launch event of its two new Internet packages yesterday, DiGi said it was planning to allocate up to RM900mil in capital expenditure (capex) in 2014 to sustain and strengthen its network position.

Murty said the investment will be to increase its high-speed packet access and 3G coverage to 86% of the population, grow its long term evolution footprint to 1,500 sites, and expand its fibre network.

He said the RM900mil allocation is the biggest amount planned in recent years. The telco has invested RM1.5bil in capex over the past two years.

On its revenue targets, the company is targetting a 4%-6% increase in annual revenue in its financial year 2014 ending Dec 31.

"Percentage-wise, subscriber base has not been growing very much with the levelling off in the industry, but we see much more growth in the frequency (of usage)," DiGi's chief marketing officer Christian Thrane added.

The company launched its "best for Internet" proposition with two new plan options - a weekly prepaid mobile Internet package and an enhanced choice of postpaid smarphone plans - at the event.

KUALA LUMPUR: Pelikan International Corporation Bhd's share price rose by as much as 5% on Friday to 76.5 sen as it is seen as a local proxy to the recovery story that is happening in the European continent.

At 11.03am, Pelikan was up three sen to 75 sen, which was its 18 months high with 5.71 million shares changing hands.

However, the FBM KLCI fell 4.26 points to 1,834.43. Turnover was 578.74 million shares valued at RM457.31mil. There were 288 gainers, 284 losers and 293 counters unchanged.

Pelikan, which derives most of its sales from the European continent, recorded its first pretax profit in three years for the financial year 2013 (FY13) of RM2.54mil in following the improved economic sentiment in Europe.

It however still reported a loss of RM9.37mil in its FY13's fourth quarter, which was sharply lower from RM53.41mil in FY12.

Earlier in 2014, Pelikan completed a reorganisation of its business in Germany and Austria through Herlitz PBS Aktiengesellschaft papier-Büro-Und Schreibwaren that saw it increase its existing effective interest of 70.92% based on the level of Pelikan's interest in Herlitz AG, the parent company of Herlitz PBS to 96.45%.

"The premium of 3.9mil eruos (RM17.6mil) is predominantly based on the customer base, brand names of 'Herlitz' and 'Susycard' taken over," the company said in January

THE premise of Love, Nina: Despatches From Family Life is simple: the entire book consists of letters Stibbe wrote to her sister, Victoria.

Why would we want to read the letters written by an unknown writer living and working in London to her sister in Leicestershire? It's the people Stibbe is working for that makes the exchange of information and ideas interesting.

In the introduction, Stibbe lets us know that at the age of 20 she left her family home in Leicestershire in 1982 to live and work as a nanny in London. The family that Stibbe ends up with is not your ordinary working family: the matriarch of the household is Mary-Kay Wilmers, who was then deputy editor of theLondon Review Of Books. (Wilmers has been editor of the London Review Of Books since 1992.) The two boys that Stibbe is nanny to are Sam and Will Frears, whose father is the acclaimed film director Stephen Frears. Playwright, writer (of novels and screenplays) and occasional actor Alan Bennett (referred to throughout the memoir as AB) is a neighbour who, for some unexplained reason, seems to come to the Wilmers household almost daily for dinner. This is certainly not your average, run-of-the-mill household.

With the celebrities that litter London and occasionally stop by the Wilmers household, one would expect salacious tales of the popular figures of the early 1980s. Sadly, apart from Bennett's entertaining musings over the dinner table, Stibbe does not share any such stories with her readers. A prime example is the fleeting appearance of Stephen Frears, who was mentioned only twice in the entire memoir, despite the fact that he is the ex-husband of Wilmers and father to Sam and Will.

Bennett aside, the only other celebrity run-in that Stibbe shares is when she runs into comedian Rik Mayall in the supermarket. "Rik Mayall had done something with Stephen [Frears] and he came around to the house once. But when we met by accident in the supermarket, he did not seem recognise who I was. He bought cream crackers," Stibbe wrote to her sister. While it may be exciting for her sister to read that Stibbe ran into Mayall in a supermarket of all places, the excitement does not translate well some 20 years later. Her anecdote of meeting the alternative comedian seems flat and uninteresting.

The people who feature greatly in her memoir are Sam and Will, the two boys Stibbe looks after. From her letters, it is obvious that Stibbe had a solid bond with the two boys. (Though she mentions it in scant detail, Sam suffers from an extremely rare genetic disorder affecting only Ashkenazi Jews; though Wilmers and Frears were told that he would only live up to the age of five, Sam celebrated his 41st birthday in 2013.)

Like most families with two pre-pubescent boys, swear words and talk of football and anatomy (male and female) litter the kitchen, where Stibbe spends most of her time trying to improvise on various recipes given to her by Victoria and even Bennett. It is her letters to Victoria detailing the gastronomic likes and dislikes of the two boys and their conversations around the dinner table that gets the laughter going. Through Stibbe's writings, readers get a glimpse into the lives of two witty and sharp minded boys.

The memoir is broken into two parts: the first part covers 1982-1984, when Stibbe lived and worked full-time for Wilmers, and the second part covers 1984-1987, when Stibbe moved to the other end of London, to attend Thames Polytechnic.

Despite no longer being a full-time staff post-1984, Stibbe still comes around to the Wilmers household to have chats with Mary-Kay and hang out with Sam and Will.

Though the Wilmers household is the place that Stibbe goes to frequently, the second part of her memoir has Stibbe describing her lectures and fellow students, and trying to impress a lecturer. It is at this juncture that her memoir becomes more despatches from student life than family life. Though interesting, parts of her letters here seem draggy and long-winded, without much point.

Love, Nina: Despatches From Family Life is a mixed bag. The first part of the memoir does live up to its title – it is entertaining to read about life in a somewhat famous household in the early 1980s, and the almost-permanent fixture of Bennett at the dinner table. (Admittedly, at the start of the book, this reviewer felt that Alan Bennett came across as pretentiously aloof; however, as the memoir progresses, Bennett turns out to be witty, if still somewhat pretentious. His "fight" with Stibbe over who had the best salad during a dinner party is frightfully hilarious.)

The one-sided conversation can become a tad monotonous – particularly in the second part of the memoir, where Stibbe seemed to be whinging about fellow students and her crush. Three years' worth of university life summed up in whinging letters to Victoria can get on readers' nerves.

Another down-turn is that Stibbe does not share the social, political or economic landscape of Britain of the 1980s; throughout her memoir, Stibbe seems to place her existence in a bubble, untouched by the outside world. Readers can only imagine what life must have been like in Thatcherite Britain and wonder about the cringe-worthy fashion of the times.

The negatives aside, Stibbe is a funny writer and her book is readable. Her tales of having to compete with a part-time Spanish housekeeper are hilarious; it is just sad that such entertainment did not emerge from her university life.

Love, Nina: Despatches From Family Life would not appeal to everyone. Those who either fancy reading about the minute details of everyday family life or wish to have a laugh at a book that has essentially no plot would find some comfort in it. Those that prefer something with more direction would be disappointed, I think.

A look at the country that colonised much of this part of the world, and how it is faring in the troubled 21st century.

WITH Scotland's referendum on independence looming (Sept 18 this year), this is a timely study of a country whose unwieldy title – emblazoned on my passport – betrays its disunity.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is neither united (the North-South divide and the class system being two of its many of its centrifugal forces), nor is it a kingdom, at least at present. Arguably, nor is it "great", as Russian leader Vladimir Putin brusquely opined to British reporters last year in Moscow.

It's said that the "Great" qualifier is to differentiate Britain from the France's Brittany, a rationale that's hard to buy for some. Nevertheless, for centuries the country has punched above its weight on the global stage.

Prof Linda Colley has penned a lively and topical tract that consists of 15 thought-provoking essays. And through these, she examines both the ties and narratives that bind the United Kingdom and also its many glaring fissures.

Colley's last book to deliver so abundantly was the excellent Britons: Forging The Nation, 1707-1837, which came out in 1992. Her approach here, as it was in that well-received work, is to focus more on cultural and social history rather than on political or military dimensions, in order to illuminate her topic of expertise.

Acts Of Union And Disunion is a broad canvas filled-in with incisive portraits of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, and the impact of the country being surrounded by the sea, and its ties with – and ambivalence over – other English-speaking countries and Europe, and much more.

With well-chosen examples, notably Shakespeare's Richard II and a speech the late Margaret Thatcher made in 1979, Colley deciphers this perplexing land, from its earliest beginnings though to the country's uncertain – and possibly fractured – future.

This work is particularly revealing on the weeping wound of the North-South divide, which long predated the late Margaret Thatcher's cynically divisive policies. We learn here, among other surprises, that the first university in the north, Durham, was built in 1832, hundreds of years after Oxford and Cambridge.

The Chester-born Colley speaks writes warmly about the north of England, a region she observes as enjoying more cohesion, grit in the face of adversity, and community spirit, than the more affluent and "prissy" south.

As for Scotland, Colley tries to correct what she sees as a historical misinterpretation.

"Scotland has never been a colony. It was never conquered or forced to submit to waves of alien settlers as Ireland was."

She also points out that the Scots were joint oppressors of the Irish and very active in the colonies. Even here in Malaya: The most infamous instance of such oppression occurred in 1948, when a platoon of Scots Guards was responsible for a massacre of civilians in Batang Kali, Selangor.

Colley is less impressive on the monarchy. She blandly asserts that it is venerated because it promises and delivers continuity. But at a time when British "poverty-porn" TV shows like Benefits Street are causing a nationwide media stir (and going viral on YouTube), the paradox that generations of one family surnamed the Windsors can live on state financial support while proles who do the same are jeered at is not addressed.

Another weakness: insufficient space is devoted to persons of colour. Indeed, Africans marched in Roman battalions across the country's green fields long before England even became an entity. And, nearly 2,000 years later, soldiers of both colour and courage fought for Britain in two world wars.

In an age when Chicken Tikka Masala is "the national dish" (as it was dubbed by a British cabinet minister some years ago), Colley's book is largely hued "a lighter shade of pale", when it should contain a multiplicity of shades.

Additionally, the fact that Colley does not speculate on the impact of Scottish independence – should it pan out – on Welsh and Northern Irish perceptions of their own place in the country is a strange omission.

Despite these shortcomings, for a current take on that curious country that once ruled lands with names like the Straits Settlements and Ceylon, as well as vast tracts on other continents, Acts Of Union And Disunionprovides compelling reading by a lucid voice on what it means to be British today, and the complexities of a nation that, in the 21st century, is populated by subjects rather than citizens.

ASIANS and Asian-Americans constitute more than 50% of the students at America's prestigious Juilliard School of Music, and 19% at Harvard, Princeton and Yale universities; and Indian Americans have the highest median household income of any ethnic group in the United States.

These and other similar statistics, as provided by the authors of the Triple Package, are the basis of this book, which attempts to discover why certain ethnic groups are more successful in specific aspects of American life. Why are so many Mormons prominent businessmen? Why are there so many Nobel prize winners who are Jews? Why are there more Chinese and Korean classical musicians?

Of course, the moment anyone starts grouping people into ethnicities or races for whatever reason, everyone gets prickly. But then, this is not the first time authors Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld are facing criticism. Or rather, Chua, specifically, isn't new to getting brickbats.

She shot to fame in 2011 when she wrote a piece entitled Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior in the Wall Street Journal. That led to a book entitled Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother that further stoked fires among Western mothers (and many Asian ones as well), whom she criticised for allowing children to have sleepovers and be praised simply to raise their self-esteem.

She teamed up with husband and fellow author Rubenfeld (he writes murder mysteries when not teaching law at Yale) for this book that looks into the lives of the five most successful ethnic groups in the United States: Chinese, Iranian, Lebanese, Indian and Jews, along with two prominent outliers, Nigerians and Cuban exiles.

The constant emphasis on how these groups have had to endure much misery to become successful eventually might make white Americans sound like bullies, but actually, I feel that this book has a moreCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-sort of agenda: it indirectly criticises white American culture by demonstrating that other cultures are better at creating successful citizens.

What Chua and Rubenfeld argue is that a "triple package" of a superiority complex, insecurity and impulse control is what promotes the upward mobility of a group of people.

By "superiority complex", they mean one group that collectively feels it is better than other groups; and these groups raise their children to think in this manner.

They point out that Jews grow up with the notion that they are the "chosen people", a feeling their faith instils in them; Mormons, too, subscribe to a religion based on the idea of "chosenness".

To be fair, the authors also mention the exception to their rule: the Amish people have the same sort of "chosen people" faith but in their case, it has relegated them to the fringes of modern America.

The second item of their package, "insecurity", is presented in a slightly more solid manner and discusses issues of scorn, fear and family. One example cited are Iranians: they choose to be identified as Persians rather than Arabs, tying themselves to the ancient great power that was Persia. When the 9/11 terror attacks took place in the United States in 2001, anti-Iranian hostility resurfaced, further reinforcing the appeal of being identified as Persian rather than Arab.

Of course, 9/11 also made life difficult for any group remotely associated with the Middle East. And this is a good thing – according to the authors, fear within individuals remains the prime motivator among successful artistes and CEOs. Here, the American idea of "learning to love yourself" is shot down because the authors believe that there needs to be a painful spur for an individual to be driven.

The last factor, impulse control, has long been a favourite topic among sociologists and psychologists who decry that fact that people these days want instant gratification. In this chapter, the authors revisit something that Chua had written about in Battle Hymn Of A Tiger Mother: how the Chinese take pride in the ability to endure hardship (though this time, it is mentioned that the Taiwanese and Koreans share the same values).

Though this book provides more substantial evidence in terms of data and examples compared with Chua'sBattle Hymn, the authors admit that some data are dubious – for instance, they write that "getting a statistical fix on Mormon income and wealth is notoriously difficult...". What I conclude from this admission is that there could be a bias towards proving their cultural supremacy theory.

Aside from the stories of high-flying successes and the creme de la creme of these communities, Chua and Rubenfeld do point out the flip side of their triple package: Success comes at a high price, the authors write, pointing to possible suicides among Asian Americans and drug abuse increasingly in play.

You could argue that this book encourages racism. But you could also see the positive side of these stories that say success is possible even if you come from the slums; in other words, Triple Package could be deemed motivational.

I feel, however, that apart from the testimonies of high-flying CEOs or professors, Chua and Rubenfeld would have added much more depth to the book if they had also spoken to ordinary white-collar workers in each of these groups to find out what they think about the success attributed to their community.

Overall, Triple Package is still an interesting read, offering as it does a mix of history, academic studies and anecdotal evidence. The authors have made their personal experience matter by taking it to a level higher.

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KOTA KINABALU: History buffs have "rediscovered" an entrance to a tunnel they believe was used during World War II at a hillside near the city's downtown area.

It is understood that back in the 1980s, the tunnel was notorious as a refuge for vagrants and drug addicts, leading it to be sealed off and forgotten for more than 25 years.

Heritage Sabah, a state-based heritage activist group, however, dismissed talk of the tunnel containing war treasures.

"The most valuable aspect of this rediscovery is that it is proof of historical accounts in Jesselton (the old name of the capital city) during the Second World War," said Heritage Sabah president Richard Nelson Sokial.

"This is an exciting discovery for Sabahans, as we now have an opportunity to uncover and validate more information about Sabah's history," he said.

Group members are certain the tunnel was part of an extensive network of secret labyrinths used by the Japanese military forces in Jesselton during the war.

Sokial said their research among long-time city residents indicated the Japanese troops occupying North Borneo (as Sabah was then known), had deployed tactical measures, such as bunkers and tunnels in the hillsides of the city as part of their strategic defences.

"The rediscovery of this wartime military shelter could shed further light on WWII history in Jesselton as well as be a potential tourist attraction for Kota Kinabalu, just like the Chu Chi tunnels," said Sokial, referring to the war tunnels built during the Vietnam War by the Viet Cong resistance against the American soldiers.

MALACCA: Mismanagement has been found to be the major factor leading to several state government agencies incurring losses amounting to RM360mil.

Commenting on yesterday's front-page report in The Star, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron (pic) said the losses could have been avoided if these agencies had prioritised effective and prudent management.

"I knew about the financial situation and the need to intervene early. Hence, I embarked on the reshuffling exercise by appointing more credible and effective officials to helm the agencies.

"The state government emphasises transparency and good governance, and never attempted to conceal or refute the losses when made public (by The Star)," he said here yesterday.

Idris emphasised that the losses were due to mismanagement and not misappropriation or other criminal acts. Therefore, there was no need to involve the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

"These are more related to managerial aspects of these agencies, and we see no need to lodge reports with MACC.

"We have conducted internal probes and audits, and the outcome has been made public because the state government has no intention to cover up the losses," he said.

Idris added that the state government would continue to ensure that its agencies were managed effectively and could generate significant revenue.

Asked on his plans for the ailing agencies, Idris said he would start by placing responsible and accountable leaders inside these organisations.

"We need time to make changes as well as to ensure that the agencies can generate revenue.

"We have our own way of doing this," he added without providing further details.

George Lazenby lacks the swagger of Sean Connery, but this 1969 black sheep is possibly the best 007 film ever.

ON Her Majesty's Secret Service (OHMSS) had a lot to live up to. As far as the entire world was concerned, Sean Connery was James Bond. And here was some impostor – worse, an impostor from the colonies, George Lazenby, whom nobody had heard of – waltzing in to take his place. It wasn't right. It wouldn't do. To rub everyone's noses in it even further, OHMSS deliberately stuck closely to the book, which meant no audience-pleasing whizz-bang gadgets. And what's with the bummer of an ending? No wonder the film only took half the amount of You Only Live Twice at the box office.

And yet, I will fight anyone who dares to tell me that they don't like OHMSS. Because they are flat out wrong. In the 45 years since it was released, it stands out as one of the best 007 films ever. Possibly even the best. It has the best soundtrack. It pushes the character into difficult new places. And that ending: that's not just a great James Bond ending, it's probably in the top 10 film endings of all time.

If you've never seen OHMSS, you should watch it. If you've seen it before, you should watch it again. And if you don't like it, I'm serious about fighting you.

Bond (George Lazenby) allowed himself one moment to be human when he married Tracey Draco (Diana Rigg), and paid the price for it – a price hardly acknowledged later in the series.

By George!

First things first: We need to talk about George. Lazenby isn't Connery. He lacks the swagger, the element of constant danger that his predecessor (and successor, since he returned to the role for Diamonds Are Forever) made his own. His voice is a bit all over the place. It doesn't help that he spends a huge portion of the film pretending to be a bespectacled, milquetoast man called Hilary Bray, nor that he was partially dubbed by English actor and writer, George Baker.

But what Lazenby does have, when he's allowed, is brute strength. Less slender than Connery, he is better equipped for stunt work, like in the pre-title sequence where he basically bodyslams a baddie into a tent. His awkwardness, too, ends up being his major strength. None of the other Bond actors could do vulnerability very well but, whether intentionally or not, Lazenby is an open sore. He's ruffled more easily, caught out more. He even displays palpable fear at one point.

And, of course, it helps that his Bond girl is Diana Rigg. Although she didn't have an awful lot to live up to – all previous Bond girls were more or less content to stand there and blink in bikinis – she's almost 007's equal here. She's spiky and uninterested, and initially uses him more than he does her. So, when tenderness between them grows, it's tangible. Not permanent – an hour into the film, he's in bed with someone else – but it's easily the most committed relationship we've seen him in.

All the time in the world

Not to bang on about it too much, but the final few moments of OHMSS are what sent the whole thing into the stratosphere. After defeating Blofeld, Bond rolls around in the snow with a St Bernard for a moment or two. Then, almost immediately afterwards, he's married. Diana Rigg cries with happiness. They cut the cake. Moneypenny's heartbroken, but puts on a brave face. They drive away to embark on their honeymoon. They discuss the family they're going to have. It's the first ending to a James Bond film that isn't just sex as a cathartic reaction to death. For once, maybe for the first time ever, he's actually content.

And then she dies.

That's how the film ends: with James Bond sobbing and cradling his murdered wife, refusing to believe that she's really gone.

It's a sucker punch, and there isn't a single trace of redemption, no matter how hard you look. There are no quips, no raised eyebrows; just the stark image of a bullet hole in a windscreen. Bond had allowed himself to be human, and he paid the price.

Observations

1. Then, of course, the whole thing was forgotten. As soon as OHMSS ended, Bond would only get increasingly campy. The loss Bond felt at the end of this film wouldn't be referenced in any meaningful way until Licence To Kill, and then only as particularly oblique subtext. What a wasted opportunity.

2. That's unless you count For Your Eyes Only, in which Bond lays flowers at Tracy's grave before dropping Blofeld down a chimney in what's quite clearly the most abysmal five minutes of the entire Bond franchise.

3. And don't forget that this is the film with the Gumbold office safecracking scene, possibly the most suspenseful in the series, even if it does come to nothing and 007 spends much of it gurning at boobs.

4. Also: Louis Armstrong's musical contribution of We Have All The Time In The World. That really can't be overstated enough, can it?

5. One aspect where I will agree with the OHMSS haters – the opening James Bond theme. It's rejigged here, and it sounds like a kitten trying to eat a stylophone. Horrible.

6. And fine, you might have a point about all the callbacks. The address to camera at the start. The whistled Goldfinger theme. This wasn't just a horrible portent of things to come, it actively ground away at the film's morose heart. – Guardian News & Media

Hailee Steinfeld dishes on cigarettes, college and dancing with Kevin Costner.

IN the three years since earning an Oscar nomination at age 14 for her film debut in Joel and Ethan Coen's True Grit, Hailee Steinfeld has had barely a moment to catch her breath.

Last year, she tackled sci-fi (Ender's Game) and Shakespearean tragedy (Romeo And Juliet). And the 17-year-old high school junior has a cluster of films completed, including 3 Days To Kill.

Penned by Luc Besson and Adi Hasak and directed by McG, the spy thriller-drama finds Steinfeld playing Zoey, the estranged teenage daughter of a dying CIA assassin (Kevin Costner).

Also in the pipeline for the actress are the Toronto Film Festival fave Can A Song Save Your Life?, Tommy Lee Jones' The Homesman and the action-comedy Barely Lethal – in this one, she's the assassin.

So, the Internet was abuzz last week with pictures of you smoking.

I did get a phone call from my dad after those pictures got out.

What did he say when you told him they were actually herbal cigarettes and the pictures were from the set of Ten Thousand Saints?

He's like, "It's all part of the game." I get it. It's cool. The movie, which involves a lot of things including smoking, drugs and alcohol, has been an interesting learning experience for me.

Speaking of interesting experiences, what was it like being on location in Paris for 3 Days To Kill?

Oh, my God, that alone was so incredible! It was my first time spending more than a weekend there. I watched the film for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It's heart-pounding to watch.

There's a quiet moment where Costner teaches you how to dance.

That was one of my favourite scenes in the movie. We had a great, great time. Kevin and McG worked with me in creating something really special.

You also just worked with Tommy Lee Jones, who not only stars in but also directs The Homesman.

That is a period piece. I don't know if it is sort of classified as a Western, but I play a very, very, small part in it. I will say I don't think I have ever been more nervous in my life as I was when I was doing one scene with Tommy Lee Jones. I had like three lines and they wouldn't come out of my mouth. I get nervous about pretty much everything.

Really? Even when you were just 14 and going through the Academy Awards three years ago, you seemed unflappable.

The thing I find as I get older that I think, maybe, I get more nervous because I have become aware of what is actually happening.

When I was 13 and shooting True Grit and when I was at the Oscars, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It took me a very long time to realise just how incredibly special that entire time in my life was. I enjoyed every single minute. But I would do anything to sort of relive it. But, I have been so fortunate to have had amazing experiences since then.

You're a home-schooled high school junior. Are you thinking about college?

Last year, I was thinking about it nonstop. The norm is that you go after you graduate from high school. I don't know where in the world I will be next week and I don't know where I will be in a year, so I was sort of worked up over that.

I had conversations with my parents and my teachers. That brought to my realisation that college is always there. That is a comforting feeling. I hope that I can find a good time to do that. – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Rodrigo Santoro on playing the Persian God-King in '300: Rise Of An Empire'.

IN 300: Rise Of An Empire, Rodrigo Santoro plays the role of Persian God-King Xerxes. While in reality, eight years have passed since 300 was released, in the film the audience finds out exactly what happens to Xerxes after 300 ends.

In an interview with SFX magazine, the 38-year-old Brazilian says: "I'm not 20 any more, so it's a little different. I remember having to watch the scene in the first one – right after the 300 are dead and Xerxes has just had a spear cut his face – and thinking, 'Oh my god ... I have to connect right after that battle. How do I do it?' It's the same character, but what can I do to make it fresh for myself?"

It helped that the film delves into his character's past, revealing how the mortal Persian turns into a gigantic tyrant. "We get to know a little about how and why Xerxes becomes the God King."